Method and system for displaying online advertisements

ABSTRACT

A system and method for increasing displaying time of online advertisements. Upon receiving a search request, a search engine identifies a list of search results and displays them on one side of a result page. The search engine also obtains a list of advertisements and displays them on the other side of the result page. When a user scrolls down to look at search results at a lower portion of the result page, the list of advertisements are moved down, following the movement of the screen. Thus, at least a part of the list of advertisements continue to be displayed on the current screen. Since online advertisements are visible to the user for a longer time, there are more opportunities for the online advertisements to get the user&#39;s attention, and consequently more opportunities for the user to click on an advertisement. Thus, the efficiency of online advertising may be improved.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/187,317, filed Aug. 6, 2008, the entirety of which is incorporated byreference herein. This application is also related to the following U.S.patent application, which is assigned to the assignee hereof andincorporated herein by reference in its entirety: U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/187,324, entitled Method and System forDynamically Updating Online Advertisements, filed Aug. 6, 2008.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to online advertising, and moreparticularly to display of online advertisements.

2. Description of Related Art

A search engine may allow users to search for web pages or othermaterials accessible over the Internet with one or more search terms.After receiving from a user a search request including one or moresearch terms, a search engine may parse the search term(s) from thesearch request, identify web pages that may be related to the searchterm(s), and display on a result page information about the web pages asa list of search results, e.g., a link to a web page containing thesearch term(s). The search results may be ranked according to theirrelevance to the search terms, with the most relevant search resultbeing positioned at the top of the list. The relevance may be determinedaccording to search engine algorithms of a search engine serviceprovider.

The search engine service provider may also display advertisements as aseparate list on a result page displaying the search results. The searchengine service provider may sign contracts with a number of advertisers(e.g., Macy's™, and GM™), and display a link to an advertiser's websitewhen a search term in a search request is related to the advertiser'sproducts or services. For example, when the search terms include“camera,” a list of relevant search results may be displayed at oneportion of a result page, and a list of advertisements may be displayedat another portion of the result page. An advertisement may include somebrief information about a camera manufacturer or a camera store, and alink to its website. An advertiser may be charged according to thenumber of clicks on its link (Pay Per Click) or the number of times itsadvertisement is displayed (Pay Per Impression). Since theadvertisements are related to the search term(s) of a search request, itis more likely that the user will be interested in the advertisements,and in this way advertising may be better targeted at users.

The list of relevant search results may take up a number of resultpages, and each result page may expand over several screens. However,the list of advertisements may be shorter than a screen. Some currentlyavailable solutions start to display the list of advertisements from thetop of a result page. The position of the advertisement list is fixedand static. When a user scrolls down to look at search results at alower portion of a result page, the upper portion of the result page,including the advertisements, may move off the current screen and maynot be visible to the user anymore. Advertisers may lose advertisingopportunities and the search engine service provider may lose revenue.

Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a system and method which mayhelp to improve the efficiency of online advertising.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

Embodiments of the present invention are described herein with referenceto the accompanying drawings, similar reference numbers being used toindicate functionally similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an online advertising system in which a system of thepresent invention may be used.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system for displaying online advertisementsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates a system for displaying online advertisementsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method for displaying onlineadvertisements according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the disclosed technologies will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an elementfirst appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the correspondingreference number.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention provides a system and method for increasingdisplay time of online advertisements. Upon receiving a search requestincluding one or more search terms, a search engine may identify a listof search results and display the search results on one side of a resultpage. The search engine may also obtain a list of advertisements anddisplay the list of advertisements on the other side of the result page.When a user scrolls down to look at search results at a lower portion ofthe result page, the list of advertisements may be moved down, followingthe movement of the screen, so that at least a part of the list ofadvertisements may keep being displayed on the current screen. Since theonline advertisements are visible to the user for a longer time, thereare more opportunities for the online advertisements to get the user'sattention, and consequently more opportunities for the user to click onan advertisement. As a result, the efficiency of online advertising maybe improved. The invention may be carried out by computer-executableinstructions, such as program modules. Advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

FIG. 1 illustrates an online advertising system in which a system of thepresent invention may be used. As shown, a number of user terminals102-1, 102-2, . . . 102-n may communicate with a data server 101 over acomputer network 103, and the data server 101 may access anadvertisement database 104.

The data server 101 may be a computer system, including a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 1011, a memory 1012, an interface 1013 to externalstorage devices, an interface 1014 to the Internet, a user interface1015, etc. All of these elements may be interconnected by a system bus1016. Alternatively, the data server 101 may include multiple computersystems each configured to accomplish certain tasks and coordinate withother computer systems to perform the method of the present invention.

The CPU 1011 may control the data server 101 to carry out a number ofprocesses, including but not limited to the one described below withreference to FIG. 3. The processes may be stored in the memory 1012. Inone example, the CPU 1011 may receive a search request over the computernetwork 103, parse one or more search term(s) from the search request,identify web pages relevant to the search term(s), determine relevanceof the web pages to the search terms, rank the web pages, and generate aresult page with the web pages being displayed as a list of searchresults at one part of the result page, e.g., the left side.

The data server 101 may also access the advertisement database 104 viathe interface 1013 to obtain advertisements relevant to the searchterm(s), rank the advertisements (e.g., according to the service feerates) and display the advertisements as a list of advertisements onanother part of the result page, e.g., the right side.

The user terminals 102-1, 102-2, . . . 102-n may be a desktop computer,a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, aset top box or any electronic devices having access to the computernetwork 103. A user terminal may have a CPU 1021, a memory 1022, a userinterface 1023, an interface 1024 to the Internet, a display controller1025 and a display 1026, interconnected via a bus 1027. The userterminal may also have a browser application configured to receive anddisplay web pages, which may include text, graphics, multimedia, etc.The web pages may be based on, e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) orextensible markup language (XML).

The advertisement database 104 may store information about a number ofadvertisers which have contracts with a search engine service providerrunning the data server 101. The information about an advertiser mayinclude, e.g., one or more keywords about its products or services, theservice fee for a click (Pay Per Click) or an impression (Pay PerImpression), the expiration date of its contract with the search engineservice provider, and the billing information. Although theadvertisement database 104 is shown as a device external to the dataserver 101, it should be understood that information about advertisersmay be saved in an internal memory device in the data server 101.

The computer network 103 may be, e.g., the Internet. Networkconnectivity may be wired or wireless, using one or more communicationsprotocols, as will be known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system for presenting online advertisementsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

A screen control module 201 may be installed in the data server 101. Thescreen control module 201 may be a program stored in the memory 1012.After a result page, including a list of search results on its left sideand a list of advertisements on its right side, is generated anddisplayed to a user, the screen control module 201 may detect the partof the result page that is on the currently displayed screen, and moveat least a part of the list of advertisements into the currentlydisplayed screen. In one embodiment, the top of the advertisement listmay be aligned with the top of the screen, so that the firstadvertisement in the list may always be displayed at the upper rightcorner of the screen, no matter whether the user is scrolling down,scrolling up, or looking at a certain part of the result page.

In one embodiment, the screen control module 201 may repeat theadvertisement list in cycles, so that each advertisement in the list mayhave substantially equal opportunities for being displayed on the screenand the part of the result page for advertisements are almost alwaysfilled. The advertisement list and its copies may be staticallydisplayed on the result page till the end of the result page or beingfilled in on the fly.

In one embodiment, instead of repeating the list of the advertisementsgenerated according to the search terms, the screen control module 201may interact with the CPU 1011 and determine the user's interestaccording to parts of the result page which the user has moused over orclicked on, and dynamically generate an updated advertisement list finetuned to the user's interest and display the updated advertisement liston the screen. The details about generating and displaying an updatedadvertisement list fine tuned to a user's interest are described in theco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/187,324, entitled Methodand System for Dynamically Updating Online Advertisements, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 2B illustrates a system for displaying online advertisementsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. Instead of beinginstalled in the data server 101, a screen control module 202 may beinstalled in a user terminal 102 n, and may interact with a CPU 1021 anda display controller 1025 of the user terminal 102 n to enable at leasta part of the advertisement list to be displayed on the currentlydisplayed screen. The screen control module 202 may be a program storedin a memory 1022 in the user terminal 102 n.

It should be understood that the screen control module 202 in FIG. 2B,as well as the screen control module 201 in FIG. 2A, may be accomplishedby hardware or firmware as well.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method for presenting onlineadvertisements according to one embodiment of the present invention. Themethod may be used with the systems shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

At 301, the data server 101 may receive a search request from a userterminal 102 n. The search request may include one or more search terms.

At 302, the data server 101, or some portion thereof such as the CPU1011, alone or in conjunction with other elements of the server 101, mayparse the search request and abstract the one or more search terms.

At 303, the data server 101 may search the Internet to identify webpages which may contain the search terms or may be relevant to thesearch terms.

At 304, the data server 101 may determine the relevance of the web pagesusing one or more algorithms.

At 305, the data server 101 may rank the web pages according to theirrelevance.

At 306, the data server 101 may search the advertisement database 104 toobtain advertisements relevant to the search terms.

At 307, the data server 101 may rank the advertisements according to,e.g., service fee rates.

At 308, the data server 101 may send data to the user terminal 102 n, sothat the user terminal 102 n may present on its display 1026 a list ofsearch results and a list of advertisements on one or more result pages.The list of search results may include information about the relevantweb pages. In one example, a result page may have a left column fordisplaying the list of search results, starting from the most relevantsearch result, and a right column for displaying the list ofadvertisements, starting from the advertisement with the highest servicefee rate. The list of search results may expand over a number of resultpages, and a result page may be longer than a screen.

In another example, the list of search results may be displayed in aright column of the result page, and the list of advertisements may bedisplayed in a left column of the result page.

At 309, the screen control module 201 or 202 may determine the currentlydisplayed screen.

At 310, the screen control module 201 or 202 may determine whether theright column of the currently displayed screen, which is used to displayadvertisements, is available to display more advertisements. If not, theprocess may return to 309.

Otherwise, at 311, the screen control module 201 or 202 may display atleast a part of the advertisement list in the right column of thecurrently displayed page.

In one embodiment, the top of the list of advertisements may be alignedwith the top of the currently displayed screen, so that the firstadvertisement in the list of advertisements may almost always bedisplayed at the upper right corner of the currently displayed screen.

In one embodiment, the screen control module 201 or 202 may repeat theadvertisement list in cycles, so that the first line of theadvertisement list will follow the last line of the advertisement list.The advertisement list and its copies may be statically displayed on theresult page until the end of the result page, or be dynamically filledin the currently displayed screen when the user scrolls up and down theresult page.

In one embodiment, an updated advertisement list may be generated anddisplayed in the right column of the currently displayed screen. Theupdated advertisement list may be fine tuned to the user's interestaccording to parts of the result page the user has clicked on or mousedover. The updated advertisement list may be different from theadvertisement list generated at 308 in, e.g., the advertisementsdisplayed or their order. The method of generating and displaying anupdated advertisement list fine tuned to a user's interest is describedin the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/187,324, entitledMethod and System for Dynamically Updating Online Advertisements, whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Several features and aspects of the present invention have beenillustrated and described in detail with reference to particularembodiments by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Thoseof skill in the art will appreciate that alternative implementations andvarious modifications to the disclosed embodiments are within the scopeand contemplation of the present disclosure. Therefore, it is intendedthat the invention be considered as limited only by the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a network communicationinterface configured to at least receive graphical content of a webpage,wherein the graphical content includes first and second search resultsand an advertisement; a graphical user interface, communicativelycoupled to the network communication interface, configured to at least:display the first search results and the advertisement; and receive userinput to change the graphical user interface, the user input includinginput to scroll down the webpage; and screen control circuitcommunicatively coupled to the graphical user interface, configured toat least change the graphical user interface according to the receiveduser input, the change including moving down past the first searchresults to the second search results and maintaining the display of theadvertisement by limiting movement of the advertisement within adetermined region of the graphical user interface, the movement of theadvertisement including following the movement of the first searchresults prior to the limiting of the movement of the advertisement. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the screen control circuit is furtherconfigured to separate the search results and the advertisement toopposing sides of the graphical user interface.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein the screen control circuit is further configured to separatethe search results to a first column and the advertisement to a secondcolumn of the graphical user interface.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the screen control circuit is further configured to align thesearch results and the advertisement so that the search results and theadvertisement move in parallel with each other.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the screen control circuit is further configured to displaystatically the advertisement unless the movement of the advertisement isbeing limited actively to the determined region of the graphical userinterface.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the screen control circuitis further configured to continually calibrate the advertisement so thatthe movement of the advertisement is limited to the determined region ofthe graphical user interface.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thenetwork communication interface and the graphical user interface arepart of a web browser circuit.
 8. A method, comprising: receiving, at anetwork communications interface, graphical content, wherein thegraphical content includes first and second search results and anadvertisement; displaying, by a graphical user interface, the firstsearch results and the advertisement; receiving, at the graphical userinterface, user input to change the graphical user interface, the userinput including input to scroll down the first search results and theadvertisement; and changing, by a circuit, the graphical user interfaceaccording to the received user input, the change including moving downpast the first search results to the second search results andmaintaining the displaying of the advertisement by limiting movement ofthe advertisement to a bottom portion of the graphical user interface,the movement of the advertisement including following the movement ofthe first search results until entering the bottom portion of thegraphical user interface.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingseparating, by the circuit, the search results and the advertisement toopposing sides of the graphical user interface.
 10. The method of claim8, further comprising separating, by the circuit, the search results toa first column and the advertisement to a second column of the graphicaluser interface.
 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising aligning,by the circuit, the search results and the advertisement so that thesearch results and the advertisement move in parallel with each other.12. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying statically, bythe graphical user interface, the advertisement unless the movement ofthe advertisement is being limited actively to the bottom portion of thegraphical user interface.
 13. The method of claim 8, further comprisingcalibrating continually, by the circuit, the advertisement so that themovement of the advertisement is limited to the bottom portion of thegraphical user interface.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the networkcommunications interface and the graphical user interface are part of aweb browser circuit.
 15. A system, comprising: a receiver configured toreceive graphical content, wherein the graphical content includes firstand second search results and an advertisement; a circuitcommunicatively coupled to the receiver, configured to: display thefirst search results and the advertisement to a graphical userinterface; receive user input to change the graphical user interface,the user input including input to scroll down the graphical userinterface; and change the graphical user interface according to thereceived user input, the change including moving down past the firstsearch results to the second search results and maintaining the displayof the advertisement by limiting movement of the advertisement to abottom portion of the graphical user interface.
 16. The system of claim15, wherein the circuit is further configured to separate the searchresults and the advertisement to opposing sides of the graphical userinterface.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the circuit is furtherconfigured to separate the search results to a first column and theadvertisement to a second column of the graphical user interface. 18.The system of claim 15, wherein the circuit is further configured toalign the search results and the advertisement so that the searchresults and the advertisement move in parallel with each other.
 19. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the circuit is further configured to output,the advertisement unless the movement of the advertisement is beinglimited actively to the bottom portion of the graphical user interface.20. The system of claim 15, wherein the circuit is further configured tocalibrate continually the advertisement so that the movement of theadvertisement is limited to the bottom portion of the graphical userinterface.